Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies. Players arrive on a deserted island, and rather than employing traditional game-play, their focus is on exploration, randomly revealing fragments of story as they search the island.

thechineseroom, makers of Dear Esther, are an award-winning independent game development studio based in Brighton. Incorporated in 2010, they released Dear Esther as their first game in February 2012 to critical and popular acclaim, winning ten major awards during 2012.

This talk, recorded as part of Pervasive Media Studio's lunchtime talks series, is a lightning fast history of thechineseroom, from its humble beginnings in academia, to accidentally releasing a hit game, and beyond. Jessica Curry and Dan Pinchbeck, founders of the studio, discuss their design philosophy, their take on emotion and story, and how these things work in the reality of their indie studio. They cover the importance of taking risks, investing in new ideas and content, working as a close-knit but remotely located team, and being part of the indie games community.

This Lunchtime Talk is part of Open Studio Friday, which takes place at the Pervasive Media Studio every week.

Are you curious about pervasive media? Lunchtime Talks are informal presentations by Studio residents and associates. They are free and open to everybody who’s interested in what we do. See the Studio events page for more info about the weekly programme.

Due to the informality of the lunchtime talks series, these events are not regularly recorded for DShed. thechineseroom captured this footage and have kindly allowed us to publish it here.

Posted on Thu 31 Jan 2013.

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